Young man from the provinces

a gay life before Stonewall

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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 18, 2024 | History

Young man from the provinces

a gay life before Stonewall

  • 0 Ratings
  • 3 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

Gay life in New York City in the 1950s and '60s was an entirely different world from today. Intensely secretive and desperately determined to stay that way, its action took place behind the unmarked doors of bars and in apartments where the shades were always drawn. Underlying the frenetic living and high hilarity was a sense of shame that was inevitable during a time when shock treatment and lobotomies were considered acceptable "cures" for homosexuality.

In Young Man from the Provinces, Alan Helms tells his story of those times. Escaping from a painful midwestern adolescence to the scholarly refuge of Columbia University, Alan threw himself headlong into New York's gay world.

Denied a Rhodes scholarship because of his sexual orientation, he turned his back on academia and became a successful model and stage actor, moving in glamorous circles whose members included Anthony Perkins, Stephen Sondheim, Marlene Dietrich, Noel Coward, Leonard Bernstein, and Edward Albee. Alan attended glittering parties, traveled around the world with his lover, and spent summers on Fire Island immersed in the company of young, beautiful men.

.

After starting a new life in Boston in the early 1970s, Alan realized that the gay social world was changing drastically and that he was facing middle age by himself. He subsequently battled drug abuse and severe depression, but his biggest battle was his struggle for self-acceptance and his attempt to build a better life.

His success helped him remain strong as he faced his mother's death from cancer in the 1980s and the deaths of many of his friends and former lovers from AIDS - more than eighty and still climbing.

Publish Date
Publisher
Faber and Faber
Language
English
Pages
206

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Young man from the provinces
Young man from the provinces: a gay life before Stonewall
2003, University of Minnesota Press
in English - 1st University of Minnesota Press ed.
Cover of: Young Man from the Provinces
Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall
February 1997, Avon Books
in English
Cover of: Young man from the provinces
Young man from the provinces: a gay life before Stonewall
1995, Faber and Faber
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
Boston

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
305.38/9664/092, B
Library of Congress
HQ75.8.H44 A3 1995, HQ75.8.H44A3 1995

The Physical Object

Pagination
x, 206 p. ;
Number of pages
206

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL789385M
Internet Archive
youngmanfromprov00helm
ISBN 10
0571198805
LCCN
95021805
OCLC/WorldCat
32745792
Library Thing
173378
Goodreads
870405

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
July 18, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
July 26, 2023 Edited by Erraticonteuse Edited without comment.
August 1, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
February 14, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot remove fake subjects
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page